American Council of Witches

The American Council of Witches (sometimes called the Council of American Witches) was an independent group founded in 1973 consisting of approximately seventy-three members who followed Pagan, Neopagan, or Witchcraft traditions; the group convened and disbanded in 1974 after drafting a set of common principles. The council convened April 11–14, 1974, in a Spring "Witchmeet" in Minneapolis, Minnesota to postulate a summary set of principles which would clarify the actuality of Neopagan religions in North America, unify and define the many differing beliefs across the many paths and traditions prevalent in Neopaganism at that time, and to counteract misinformation, cultural stigma, stereotypes, and lack of governmental recognition. The council was assembled by Carl Llewellyn Weschcke, president of Llewellyn Worldwide Ltd., one of the largest publishers of occult, Neopagan, and New Age books in the world. These "Principles of Belief", also referred to as "The Thirteen Principles of Belief" or "The Thirteen Principles of Wiccan Belief", are still endorsed by many American Witches, Neopagan groups, and individuals. In 1978 these principles were incorporated into the United States Army's Religious Requirements and Practices of Certain Selected Groups: A Handbook for Chaplains in a section on the Wiccan religion. This section was prepared under the direction of Rev. Dr. J. Gordon Melton, director of the Institute for the Study of American Religion and editor of the Encyclopedia of American Religion. The American Council of Witches disbanded later that year due to difficulties in reconciling differences among its members' traditions. The position expressed in the document is that modern Witches are not bound to any modern interpretation of historical evidence or any contemporary hierarchy, but are rather subject only to their inherent Divine connection: "We are not bound by traditions from other times and other cultures and owe no allegiance to any person or power greater than the Divinity manifest through our own being.